PETER FOSTER BIRD 1922-1986

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PETER FOSTER BIRD 1922-1986

It was with shock and dismay that we learned of the death Pete Bird, a man we had been proud to call friend for over 25 years. A kinder and more generous man one could not have wished to meet. I well remember the evenings spent in his flat when there was always a cup of Camp Coffee, with condensed milk and sugar and a plentiful supply of Chocolate digestive biscuits. We still talk of the camping trips to Wales when we would pitch our tents above Porth yr Ogof for the weekend, go down to the pub in the evening, return to a campfire sing-song, and be off the next day down the caves. I can see him now, his lank figure hunched in the back of our van, knees to chin, rolling his own cigarettes, for on short trips to Mendip or when the weather was bad, he would leave his beloved motorbike at home and travel with us.

He was never too busy to write a reference, and there must be many an ageing 40 year old who now has Pete to thank for setting them on the right road to success. Quiet and understanding he always lent a ready ear to the troubles of others and helped wherever he could. How could such a gentleman in the widest sense of the word have come to such a terrible end?

After we moved to Wales we lost touch, and this is one of those sad occasions when we find ourselves saying "If only we had known." To his family we extend our sincere condolences, and hope that time will heal the pain they must be suffering at this sad time.

Peter was the first person to ring cave dwelling bats on Mendip and for many years dug at ?Pete Bird?s Dig? in Burrington Combe now known as Flange Swallet.



 

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PETE BIRD, BSc.

Peter Foster Bird was born in Exeter on the 13th May 1922. He became a major scholar at Wellington School, Somerset, and on leaving, went to work for British Cellophane in Bridgwater for a year or two, until he was called to War Service around 1940 - probably at age 18.

He joined the RE''s and was deployed on bomb disposal in London until the invasion of Europe. While he was involved with the building of a bridge across the Rhine, he was wounded. He recovered from this, but his nerves were so shattered, that he was withdrawn, to be a medical orderly away from the Front.

During his working days before the War, he had passed his Inter BSc as a part-time student of Bristol University. After his demobilisation in 1947, he became a full-time student, and graduated BSc (Bristol) in 1949. Bristol Museum employed him immediately as an assistant curator, in which capacity he passed his Museum's Diploma. Later he became Curator of Botany and Zoology and thereafter of Entomology.

At around the time of his graduation he suffered a severe nervous breakdown, a problem which was to beset him at intervals for the rest of this life, coinciding with periods of excessive strain. It was as a result of a breakdown that he was compelled to go into premature retirement at 55 (not so uncommon now), and his remaining days were bedevilled with depression and associated problems. Nevertheless his death was unnatural and wrong - resulting from a brutal murder and robbery at his Bristol bed-sitting room, on the 27/28th September 1986.



He became very much a lonely figure during his post-retirement years, self-absorbed to the extent of not noticing people whom he knew well, when he passed them by. We prefer to remember him in happier times - very interested in matters academic, a cause and life which he evangelised, cheerful on motor cycle, kind, generous, urbane and of effervescent wit to friends. He was an enthusiastic caver and there are many who owe much to him for their first steps in caving. Caving was an interest concurrent with that of the study of bats, on which he was an early authority. He was an "academic socialist", but not a political activist. He was very much a Bristol man, and had no wish to move elsewhere. We bid him a sad farewell.

Roger Tucker
 

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Peter Foster Bird BSc? [PFB] Bristol 2nd class.  Curator of Zoology and Botany at Bristol City Museum, member UBSS and used UBSS and PFB on his bat rings.  Born 13th May 1922, murdered during a robbery 27/28th September 1986?.see:
http://www.google.com/custom?q=Peter+Bird&sa=Search&sitesearch=ubss.org.uk&cof=GALT%3A%23d8d0bf%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fubss.org.uk%3BGL%3A2%3BVLC%3A%23d69d23%3BAH%3Aleft%3BBGC%3A%23281f11%3BLH%3A44%3BLC%3A%23d69d23%3BGFNT%3A+%23a59681%3BL%3Ahttp%3A2F%2Fubss.org.uk%2Fimages%2FUBSS_logo_aftershock.gif%3BALC%3A%23d69d23%3BLW%3A197%3BT%3A%23efebe0%3BGIMP%3A%23d8d0bf%3BAWFID%3A952a0c2e883cd920%3B&domains=ubss.org.uk
Obituary by Roger Tucker.  The British Caver Vol 100 Winter 1986 page 33 photo
 
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